Parasitic Worm Infection May Boost Female Fertility

First Posted: Nov 20, 2015 11:00 AM EST
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Parasitic worm infection could help or harm a women's fertility, according to a recent study.

Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara examined two of the most prevalent parasites--hookworms and giant roundworms. They found that Tsimane women afflicted with roundworms were more likely to have two additional children. Those infected with roundworms were more likely to have three less.

"Hookworm infection tended to increase the length of the intervals between births and that was consistent across all ages. But younger women infected with roundworm had shorter birth intervals," lead study author Aaron Blackwell, anthropology assistant professor at UCSB, said in a news release.

Intestinal worms, or soil-transmitted helminths (STH), are caused by a group of parasitic worms, most commonly hookworm, roundworm (ascariasis) and whipworm (trichuriasis) that are either transmitted through contaminated soil or by ingesting parasite eggs, according to The End Fund

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently estimates that over 1.4 billion are infected with one or more STHs. Typically, affected individuals are living in tropical areas with poor sanitation. However, some of these parasites actually have a lot in common with a fetus in the womb--triggering some of the same immune changes that occur during pregnancy. 

During the study, researchers examined 986 Tsimane women in Boliva for nine years. They found that women infected with the roundworm species scaris lumbricoides typically had two more children than those without it--having an average of 10 children in general. 

"This study examines yet another domain where helminths and their regulatory effect on the immune system may be relevant to broader aspects of health and well-being," said co-author Michael Gurven, a UCSB anthropology professor and co-director of the Tsimane Life History and Health Project. "Although we don't know the precise mechanism behind these results, our findings are still compelling and suggest that immune modulation -- via our 'old friends' the intestinal worms -- can have far-reaching effects on the body, even though the findings may be less applicable in developed populations where women only have a few children over their lifetime.

"In fact, the Tsimane look at us as poor because we only have one or two children," Gurven added. "Their population growth rate is almost 4 percent, so every 17 years or so, they double their numbers."

The study is published in Science

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